Using a multidisciplinary approach and case studies based on fieldwork in nine countries scattered across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Oceania, China in the Global South: Impact and Perceptions (Springer, 2023) scrutinizes the frequently ignored agency of the Global South sub-national actors in their interactions with rising China. Diverse case studies engage with two interrelated questions. What are the real economic, political, and social impacts of China’s growing presence in the Global South? And, more critically, how do the state and societies of the Global South frame and interpret their interactions with China amid its rise? Consequently, the volume analyzes how sub-national actors respond to China’s emergence as an increasingly consequential power in the Global South and whether they are attracted by cooperation models proposed by Beijing or deterred by its newfound assertiveness.

Each chapter of this volume identifies and fills a gap in the literature on China’s rise by offering a nuanced perspective on its relations with the Global South that captures such variables as social context, intersubjective meanings, and identities. They also illuminate often neglected aspects of China’s role in the international politics of development and identify emerging trends in South-South cooperation. Critically, the central argument of the volume is that the agency of sub-state and non-state actors in developing countries meaningfully influences the evolution of their interactions with China. Far from being passive recipients of Beijing-constructed images and cooperation models, these actors are fully aware of their identity and interests and respond accordingly to China’s increasingly visible presence in the Global South.

All chapters are based on extensive fieldwork and intimate knowledge of spaces whose dynamics often seem complicated or obscure to outside observers. Building their analysis on firsthand empirical findings, each contributor provides an improved and nuanced understanding of China’s interactions with diverse, frequently divergent, and complex state-society systems of the Global South. A multidisciplinary approach enriches the volume and allows us to bring together insights from International Relations, Political Geography, Government, Development Studies, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, and International Communication Studies.

Theodor Tudoroiu is a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, Trinidad and Tobago. 

Anna Kuteleva is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work intertwines international relations, development studies, energy security, and feminist-informed approaches to politics.